Chapter 108 Cotton Candy

In the afternoon, the class bell rang.

The little children sat inside the classroom, the backs of their hands pressed at their backs as they stayed quiet and obedient.

Five minutes have already passed since class started, and the classroom was still in absolute silence, not a single person was absent-minded. Classroom discipline could make any elementary school teacher shed tears, however, Ning Xiuli did not have the slightest reaction.

In her class, everything was right where it should be.

Not wanting to take a beating, they had to sincerely listen to her words.

Ning Xiuli has never been a teacher before, so she naturally didn’t know how to become one. Even if she knew how to, she still wouldn’t patiently teach these bunch of little kids.

Seeing the lesson plan posted in front of her, Ning Xiuli knew that this lesson must have been pinyin(1).

1. Hanyu Pinyin is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan and Singapore.

As a result, Ning Xiuli, with impatience painted across her face, wrote down the six vowels on the blackboard and read it sternly.

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Gqvla alyekdt vblx swv zswe, pbl wple bla rskdvla vs pvakjl vbl czynjcsyae voknl, byapbzu pyukdt, “Mbkp kp obyv ol okzz cl zlyadkdt vseyu—— Vkdukd! Eakvl esod lynb Vkdukd kd uswa dsvlcssjp y bwdeale vkxlp yde pwcxkv vblx yqvla nzypp. Mbspl obs yald’v yczl vs qkdkpb clqsal lhldkdt okzz dsv cl yzzsole vs lyv wdvkz vblu’al esdl!”

“G bwdeale vkxlp kp y zsv, bso nswze ol qkdkpb!”

“Esss… Ysxxu, R oyddy ts bsxl!”

“Mlynbla alye kv vss qypv, R nyd’v alxlxcla bso vs pyu y pkdtzl sdl! Tlu, eke usw alxlxcla? R’x ps pnyale ycswv Mlynbla bkvvkdt rlsrzl vbyv R nyd’v alxlxcla!”

Gp pssd yp Lkdt Dkwzk’p hsknl qlzz, nbyvvlakdt nswze cl blyae qasx clzso.

Mbl pvweldvp yzz zsolale vblka hsknlp, vblka pswdep clnsxkdt kdnsxryayczu pxyzz. Jwv, kd vbl saktkdyzzu pkzldv nzyppassx, vblka iwklv ekpnwppksdp olal pvkzz iwkvl schkswp.

Gp lmrlnvle, Lkdt Dkwzk vssj swv bla rskdvla yde oldv esod vs awvbzlppzu rwzz swv y nswrzl sq nbkzeald, zlvvkdt vblx pvyde pvkzz yp pbl qzsttle vblx yp rwdkpbxldv.

Gp pssd yp pbl pvyavle vbl rwdkpbxldvp, vbl nbyvvlakdt kdpkel vbl nzyppassx kxxlekyvlzu byzvle.

The children kept quiet out of fear, no longer concerned if they could remember how to pronounce the pinyin. One by one, they took out their workbooks and began using their young soft hands to madly copy the pinyin on the blackboard, not a single one dared to further haggle with Ning Xiuli.

Copying the pinyin a hundred times was not much for an adult.

But, for these first graders, who were so young and couldn’t properly hold their pencils, this was simply equivalent to a harsh punishment.

As Ning Xiuli stood at the platform and glared at them like a tiger watching its prey, all the students were concentrating on their task, incessantly copying the six pinyin vowels down.

However, despite using all of their breastfed energy, they still wouldn’t be able to finish by the time class was over.

Ning Xiuli was playing on her phone, not even worried one bit.

You could say that she thoroughly enjoyed the process of tormenting these rebellious yet powerless kids.

Once it hit 5 o’clock, some students successively finished copying the vowels down, but a lot of their hands turned tart. And, by the time it reached 6 o’clock, they had all finished copying the pinyin.

At this time, the large majority of the children had already finished eating dinner, so they had no other choice but to drink a belly’s worth of water and let their stomach’s not be as painful before crawling to their beds with empty stomachs.

It got dark quickly in the ‘Special Districts,’ and when 9 o’clock hit, not a single light could be seen outside the school.

Through the window, one could only see a dark mass, the light seemed to be cut off by the pitch-black window. Only the lights inside the dorm emitted a tiny bit of warmth, giving the children a small hint of security and preventing them from falling apart.

“Okay, tonight you all sleep here. You are not allowed to make any noise. Remember this well, whoever dares to speak loudly, I’ll kill you.”

After Ning Xiuli said these fierce words, she then locked up the room’s door, locking in the 49 students in the room.

Hearing Ning Xiuli’s clattering footsteps go further away, a kid finally began to make soft sobs.

And when she started crying, it caused the other’s tears to also stir.

The small weeping noises joined together, turning the room with only a dim light into a wake.

Soon, some children cried out in a small voice, “I’m so scared… Wuuu… I don’t wanna stay here, I wanna go home…”

Gradually, the children grew exhausted from crying. One kid said, full of fear, “Today at lunch, Teacher Ning punished two people to stand outside. Why did only one person come back, where did the other girl go? Did she go home?”

“She must be dead, she must’ve been beaten to a pulp and killed by Teacher Ning! Teacher Ning is a ghost, otherwise, she wouldn’t be this vicious!”

The kid who read too many fairy tales choked with emotion. He described Ning Xiuli as the ferocious-looking ghost in the stories, and a few children seemed to agree with this guess.

The kids cried and chatted for a while, slowly feeling tired. Limited by age, the six-year-olds needed more sleep. As a result of crying so much, snot and tears hung on their faces as they dozed off.

Gradually, most of the kids drifted off to sleep. Bai Yan also felt sleepiness creeping over, but he still tried to hype himself up, unwilling to be killed by the ghost behind the curtains.

During noon, Lin Miaomiao saw a ghost outside the window, and this was certainly the case.

Right now, at night, that ghost was most probably still standing outside the window!

Thinking that the insides of the room couldn’t be clearly seen from the single light and have the door locked by Ning Xiuli, they were trapped inside the room, too crowded to run away and escape, while ghosts could come here at any time. Bai Yan was so excited that goosebumps came running down all over.

Bai Yan tossed and turned under his quilt. Thinking about the ghost standing outside the window, he couldn’t sleep a wink.

But, slowly but surely, he also grew tired.

A child needed sleep, even he wouldn’t be able to avoid this kind of natural behavior.

Bai Yan’s eyelids closed as his hawk-colored eyelashes hung down, trembling occasionally. His mind also grew hazy, slowly sinking into a half-conscious state.

Staying in this state, Bai Yan would surely fall asleep as the minutes went on.

However, just when he was about to doze off, he suddenly heard two voices coming from his right. The sounds were small, so small as though it was barely whispering into his ear. Nevertheless, it was enough to wake him, sobering him up in an instant, his eyelids slightly trembling.

Bai Yan’s eyelids lifted, forming narrow slits, but he quickly closed them again.

He couldn’t see anything in the darkness, opening his eyes would be pointless. Moreover, him not being able to see anything in the dark didn’t mean it would be the same case for the ghosts.

To be on the safe side, he didn’t open his eyes and slowed down his breathing, feigning to be asleep, while perking up his ears and eavesdropping on the conversation of the two people to his right.

“I’m so hungry… I was so slow copying the pinyin. Teacher punished me by letting me starve and not letting me eat dinner. I’m so hungry…” A boy said.

“Hehehe, I also didn’t eat, but I have something to munch on. Have you heard of cotton candy?” Another boy’s voice popped up.

“Cotton candy? I like eating them! Did you bring them from home? Mom and dad sent me to this school but didn’t let me bring anything. Your mom and dad are the best.” The boy said with envy.

“Hehe, I have some cotton candy. Actually, you also have cotton candy, there’s no need to eat mine.” The boy said in a slightly weird voice, “You can eat yours right now.”

“You’re talking rubbish, I don’t have any cotton candy. If I had some, then my stomach wouldn’t be growling.” The boy resentfully retorted, “If you don’t want to share them with me, then fine, you cheapo!”

“Hehe, I’m not lying, doesn’t your quilt have cotton candy? Cotton and cotton candy are both white and soft, but the only difference is one more word, so eating it would be almost the same as cotton candy.”

“Really? Don’t lie to me…” The boy was still skeptical, but he extended his hand and groped around in the dark, beginning to undo the cotton inside the quilt.

The sewn quilt cotton threads of the quilt given to elementary school students were quite long, so the boy used a few fingers to pull, opening the quilt on its corner and revealing the cotton inside.

The boy felt the soft cotton, recalling the feeling of cotton and feeling that it was similar to cotton candy, the two were also both white.

However, the cotton didn’t stick to his hands like cotton candy, and it also didn’t bring about a sweet smell to it.

But, he didn’t eat a good meal the whole day and didn’t take a single bite of dinner. The boy was so hungry that he felt faint and vision blurred, his stomach ache kept him up. Regardless of the consequences, after a slight hesitation, he grabbed a ball of cotton and stuffed it into his mouth——

“You tricked me! Cotton doesn’t taste like cotton candy, it doesn’t have any taste!”

The boy grumbled in whispers, but he still didn’t stop eating the cotton.

He was truly starving, and although it had a bland taste, it still gave him a slightly sour and slightly sticky feel. The cotton had a bit of a weird flavor, but it still beat the granular and fly-filled fried rice by a lot.

As a result, the boy ate the cotton in large bites before stopping his movements, as though his stomach wasn’t hurting anymore and he wanted to sleep.

However, as soon as he flipped over, he heard the boy on the right say, “You’re not going to eat anymore? What a pity, I also like eating cotton candy the most! What if the two of us have a contest to see who could eat more? The person who eats more wins, and the person who loses will be the winner’s dog for a day!”

Dog!

The boy’s spirit immediately riled up.

He had long wanted to own a dog, but his parents didn’t allow him to. He could only sneak off and play with the dog outside, so he always felt dissatisfied.

When he entered the school, he saw that there were no dogs in sight.

Now that someone was willing to be his dog, he was so happy that he could jump up and down.

Amid the darkness, a cruel smile hung on his face, and the boy hastily said in a small voice, “Fine, let’s compete. I won’t lose!”

After talking, the boy used both of his hands and began desperately scooping out cotton from the quilt, scooping it out and stuffing the round lumps into his mouth, eating with a tickle left in his throat.

With the boy’s efforts, he quickly ate a lot of cotton, to the extent that his throat was left rough and dry and he didn’t have any saliva left. But, he still persevered and swallowed the cotton, fearing that he would become the dog.

Slowly, no movement could be felt around the boy.

The boy’s cotton scooping also got slower and slower, he actually ate until he couldn’t move.

Moreover, the boy always felt something weird in his stomach. Eating a whole lot of cotton, it was reasonable to say that he had eaten his fill, but his stomach was still throbbing in pain, feeling swollen and extremely uncomfortable.

“It must be because I ate a lot of cotton… No, I can’t eat anymore.”

The boy ate another ball again, his stomach immediately hurting more.

As a result, he finally stopped eating cotton, but at this time, he did not forget about their little bet.

He endured the pain and stammered, “I… I can’t eat anymore… You, how much did you eat? …Who, who won…”

The boy asked twice, but no sounds were coming from his right.

For a long time, his right side was quiet as though the person that he had made a bet with had disappeared. This led to the boy feeling furious, sensing that the person must have lost and wanted to back out, not wanting to be his dog!

The boy hated people who went back on their word the most and decided to pressure him into honoring their deal, so he extended his small hand to the right.

However, he could only feel the wall, not feeling even half a person’s figure.

“Weird, where did he go?”

At this time, the boy’s stomach hurt even more, giving him a harder time concentrating.

After a long while, the boy gradually realized that the wall was originally on his right side and that no one was sleeping on his right at the beginning.

Then, who did he make a bet with?

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